12. Final stage12.1 The Final will comprise the 2 remaining teams, winners of the 2 Semi-finals.
12.2 The fixture will no longer be 2-legged, and no perceived starting advantage will be given to either team.
12.3 The Final will maintain the 3-player clash format. (unless rule 12.8 is chosen)
12.4 The Final will take place over one week.
12.5 Matches for the Final will now be Best of 7, first to 4 wins. Ties do not count.
12.6 Starting rules will be as in the Quarter- and Semi-final stages, but now the first game is opened with Random Starter. Starters will alternate whatever the result of each game.
12.7 The winning team will win at least 2 of the 3 matches.

2 locos but perfect colours to end fast. I start with 6 and 6 orange, he's waiting, I lay 6 white. He starts 3 to La then 5 yellow and 6 green. I go with 6 red. Too slow, he has barely time to complete La Mia while I lay 6 green on grey, 6 blue and 3 to sf.

2nd game : Sea Ny La ny vs SSM oak Cal Slc? (his start)130 vs 106
Monster tix for me, once he laid 6 orange on grey, I got a freeway for my sea ny. I found time to delay him in the middle with 5red before reaching La.

3rd game : Den Pitt Dallas Ny vs La Mia Chi no (my start)86 vs 119

He starts 6 orange, 5 white, I play 4 green 6 yellow.
I do my track like a sea ny, dallas ny, but i try to cut his longest but prevents me from completing Den Pitt. Good play by Vincent !

Bip tix for me, i Start offensive full of orange, he takes 6 grey. Not willing to see a big one, I lay 4 blue (all that at 28 cards), he lays 6 pink, then I lock 6 white.
He goes down to omaha then lay 6 yellow, 5 blakc. I kill 5 red then 4 pink.

He then goes down to St Louis, I can delay him in Lr, he goes to nash, 1 for me... He then needs to play 3 white, but i got 3 locos there. He cant complete any of his tix.

Happy with my play there !

5th game : La Mia Port phoe vs Van fe Chi (my start)130 vs 94

I take 6 black, he 6 orange. I picked tons of yellow open to be flexible, he plays most of his locos on 6 yellow, i can go 6 red and complete peacefully after his 6 green.

Super flexible, he tries to kill Port-Phoe without success. Start tix and colours were too good for me there.

We didn't see many super combos, but I played pretty well with the stuff I had, and Vincent surely didnt have good stuff when mine was below average.

If Will is the King, there is only 1 SUPERSTAR !...
Grats Carsten.
Klasse gespielt

Less of that or we'll be UK in the NC and drop the B
Shouldve been 8-1 vs suburu in the last game.

And I maintain nobody could have beaten bulent with my tickets... and Kasi wouldnt have done much better than Kostas vs him... Kasi hasn't fully understood 'the force' of 6 red. He is admittedly getting a feel for it, but that isnt quite good enough. I'll teach him a few moves after the NC and we can have more confidence in him then!

Good Work Barbie-killer... Surely you can call me King Will for a week after winning my match! The rumors were correct, you do have 6 legs!

Ps. "Special thought for Kostas"... Either he's got married and the bedsprings havent stopped shaking on the honeymoon, or we're a good man down. Not sure if he needs a pat on the back and 'well done' or 'a special thought'

He put the K in UKB, UnitedkingdomKostasBelgium. Hope he returns or we're just UnitedKingdomBelgium UKB. Out of respect it'll be a little k if he isnt around UkB

It is very difficult to tackle on this cup, because everything has to fit. How important it is also a strong first round play, I must mention not feeling well. Each time the knocked out Round performance and a well functionally team work round this heavy target.

I get the oranges early and lay them. Ommie lays 6 red on grey. Me 6 white with 1 loko. Ommie 4 blue, me 6 yellow with 2 lokos. Ommie 3 pink HEL-SLC. I wonder about her tix, but first of all I'm happy to have good chances to get 6 pink too. I lay 5 black. Ommie 6 green, me 3 blue MON-NY, I'm through. I think about blocking 3 SANF-LA, cause I dont see good chances for longest for me, but I decide not to do. After she lays 5 white on SANF-SLC, I guess perhaps she has SANF-ATL. LA-MI isn't possible after 6 red on grey. I block HOU-NO. She answers with blocking my connection SEA-CAL. Grrrr Ok, I have 2 out DUL-NO, playing 1 to VAN (having some singles) I want to squeeze her to have another 3 out, and she does. But all fighting for longest doesn't help. I think about drawing for VAN-MON, but decide not to do it. I do not understand her start with 6 red on grey, cause she played no tic with SAULT. With 12+8 I would never start like this and the connection to DUL comes that late, that I don't believe in a tic with it. Was my block DUL-HOU decisive? I have 4 blue for CAL-HEL and am surprised, when I see her tix WINNI-HOU and NY-ATL, that she did not play. So I win unexpected and undeserved

103:102. puuhhhh

Game 2
DEN-PITT, DUL-HOU (MON-ATL)

No tix I like, but I again get the oranges. Ommie answers with 6 green on grey!!! Ok, no middle. I decide to try a round HEL-SEA-PORT-SLC-DEN-PHOE-ELP-HOU and play 6 yellow with 2 lokos. Now I think I better had played 6 white with 2 lokos, but there was a chance to win, if ommie let me go this way. But she does not . She plays 6 white and after me drawing blue open, she lays 6 blue! hm....PORT-NASH? Or just PORT-PHOE? Me 6 pink, she lays 4 red CAL-SEA, I block SEA-PORT, also for longest. She lays 5 black, I start to connect my tix. I have the colours to play 4 green to DEN,ommie 3 LA-PHOE, but I have no colours to block LA-SANF and expect, that she has 5 orange AND 5 pink, so no chance to block her PORT-PHOE. I have no time, make my tix with 5 white, 3 of my 5 blue, 4 red, another 1 orange (having another 2 green on hand), and hope to have big success by drawing. She lays the expected tracks, I draw 4, but its not enough. A deserved win for her with the expected VAN-MON and PORT-PHOE

110:119

Game 3
LA-MI, CHI-NO (CHI-SANFE)

Colours are horrible, 3 black, 1 red, 4 green, but 6 orange, so I decide to play them. Ommie answers with 6 yellow. I NEED those black and play them with 3 lokos! . Now I have 4 green and 1 red with 3 lokos. Ommie plays 6 red on grey! I am more happy about her playing the red than frightened, that she has a big one. I took the 2 greens open, reds appear. She 6 white, me 6 green. I cant take the reds open, before I played HOU-NO. I take 1 blind, find another green and take another green open. Ommie lays 4 green HEL-DEN. PUUHHH! Me 2 green HOU-NO. I take those reds open and get unexpected 5 of them this way. I lay 4 pink and ommie decides to block 4 blue to CHI. Now I'm happy, that the tic wasn't CHI-LA . I connect DUL-OMAHA, don't care about CHI-NO and play for longest. Ommie blocks LA-PHOE, but no problem, cause she has 3+4 out with her blocks, me only 6 black. I play 3 yellow ELP-PHOE, 5 white, 6 red and 4 blue HEL-CAL. Ommie connects 5 black and 3 VAN-CAL, but np, she also has only 1 tic with 20 as me, I'm longer, more trackpoints....and she draws??? What does she hope to find??? Ahhh, she does not have VAN-MON, so she missed 2 and cant win. She started with DEN-ELP, KAN-HOU and draws PORT-PHOE. No chance for her, I win

115:72

Game 4
SEA-LA, DEN-PITT (CHI-NO)

Not my favourite combination, but nice, if ur opp lets u play . Ommie starts with 6 black, so I know that it gets difficult to reach LA . I'm not happy with my colours, having 4 orange, 4 yellow, 4 pink.... Ok I start with 6 oranges with 2 lokos. Ommie plays 6 green. Another attempt blocking DUL-HOU, in game 1 it was useless. Ommie draws, I play 3 black on LA-PHOE, having fear she lays 5 white, but she lets them open. Ommie lays 6 orange on grey. Hm, was my block for nothing again? . I lay 6 yellow with another 2 lokos and 5 white, ommie 3 red CHI-DUL. The order in which the last moves were laid, I am not sure, but I had 6 yellow, 6 orange, 5 white and 3 to LA done, ommie 6 black, 6 green, 6 orange on grey and 3 red DUL-CHI, when she laid 3 yellow LA-SANF. Hm, what way will she go? I wanted to go with 4 green to HEL, 3 pink to SLC, PORT, SEA, but she then can make a nice way with SANF-SLC-DEN-OMA-CHI-DUL-WINNI (she had taken another 2 blacks open) and SAULT, 44 with start to strong. To let her go via HEL seems to be easier for me to destroy her longest. So I play 3 red DEN-SLC. Ommie plays PORT-SEA!!!! A block for my longest??? I have my green to block 4 CAL-SEA or 5 SANF-PORT, so she cant reach WINNI this way. I close SLC-HEL, she decides to play 4 SEA-CAL and gets the block 5 green SANF-PORT. She lays 2 ELP SANF. I'm not interested in blocks no more, cause I'm sure I get longest and ommie is slow. I take the other 2 pink open and have 5 again. Ommie plays the next 2 SANFE-DEN. I play 6 pink, ommie connects SAULT-DUL, me 2 TO-PITT, ommie 2 DUL-OMA, me finishing with 2 down from PITT, ommie connects 4 pink OMA-DEN, but with longest and better trackpoints I win against LA-CHI, WINNI-HOU my best game, cause ommie this time had tix, she could take part with in that game:

114:106

Game 5
LA-NY, DEN-PITT (forgot the 3.)

Not easy, but nice with 6 orange, 6 pink. But 6 orange are the first, ommie plays, when I have 2. Grrrrrrrr. So I MUST get 6 black, and perhaps 6 pink after them. I startw ith 6 black, ommie plays 6 pink. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. Playing 6 pink before 6 yellow after my 6 black makes me sure, she has east. I have 5 useless red, through them with 1 loko on MI-NO, cause I dont expect to get longest or many other 6ers and hope to disturb ommie a bit. Ommie plays 1 ATL-NASH. Ok, I make her slow and play 4 yellow NASH-PITT. She 3 white NASH-LR. Is it to make her way down with 5 green PITT-ST.L sure? I take these green. Ommie 2 LR-OKLA. I risk to let NY open and play 2 blue ST.L-KAN, ommie 4 green HEL-DEN, me 4 orange. My way to LA is not blockable anymore. Ommie lays 4 red, me 6 pink on grey, (puh, some more trackpoints for me) having 6 white, 1 blue and 2 lokos and take an open blue and close another white. Because of my open drawn blue and my laying 4 yellow to NASH, Ommie decides to lay 6 blue and try to block PORT-NASH. I lay 2 white NY-PITT, knowing I have won, ommie 5 black, me 5 white, ommie connects MON-TO, me finishing with 3 blue PHOE-LA, ommie 2 SAULT-TO and my last 1 to DALL. I win

120:109

All TTR-GODS were on my side yesterday. I had start, never less than 5 lokos (7 in the last), never east, always playable combos, and nothing of that applied to ommie. It's a game, in which luck is important, how much I am sorry for ur tix, I'm happy and proud to have won all my matches and the next team-title. Thx for good games ommie, and thx luck.

And let me state a thank you to all who played Champions League this year. This had to be the most trouble-free, enjoyable tournament I have been a part of in this TTR community for quite awhile. Hopefully more teams for next year.